Re: China/Taiwan-The CCP Propaganda Machine Is Cranking.

Just got off the phone with someone who was born in Taiwan from parents who fled from China with the KMT in 1949 and is now an American citizen. What she told me was jaw-dropping to me.

In the aftermath of our Afghanistan debacle, the local news in Taiwan is bracing for similar abandonment by the US – with good reason. That’s not the shocking part. What’s shocking is the receptivity to this fate by the older generation.

According to her sources in Taiwan, the older generation of Chinese (like her parents) in Taiwan identify as "Chinese" vs. the younger generation who think of themselves as "Taiwanese."

This older generation is being fed promises from China about all the “benefits” of reunification: full convertibility of their NT$ to CNY, unfettered travel/job opportunities within mainland China, “protection” by China from RoW, national pride of being “Chinese," etc.

I reminded her that the only "protection" Taiwan needs is from the party offering the protection! Sounds like Tony Soprano offering your business protection from other gangsters.

I reminded her of the complete crackdown on personal freedoms in Hong Kong, which she acknowledged but in the same breath rebutted with the "efficacy" of their state-imposed COVID lockdowns. Me: “You think that’s a good thing?”

She then reminds me, Bill Maher-style, of our ridiculous bureaucracy and inability to get shit done for years whereas “China can get a bridge built in a week.” Ok, she got me there. Every time I land in LAX, I wince in embarrassment for our country.

This conversation hits home because my grandparents also fled with the KMT from China to Taiwan. I would NEVER have guessed that generation to be amenable to reunification with a China that in recent years has become more and more like the Maoist state the KMT fought against.

I reminded her that China’s actions speak louder than words and that she need look no further than Hong Kong as a future template for a China-controlled Taiwan dystopia. And then there’s this:

I am saddened by this conversation and more than a little worried about the power of the CCP propaganda machine trying to Jedi Mind-Trick its citizenry a la Putin with Ukrainian Russians.

I pray that the US and its Allies recognize the ROC as a sovereign state and a “vital interest” that doesn’t become yet another ruined vassal state of the PRC and CCP.

There is much more at stake for the world than national pride for the older generation of Chinese in Taiwan.

I guess I am taking this very personally because I was brought up by grandparents who fled China in ’49 with the KMT and directly experienced the WW2 atrocities of the CCP/Japanese. They were separated from their families and not reunited for 30+ years because of the CCP.

It is an absolute gut punch to hear that older generation Chinese like these might feel safer in the hands of the CCP than as an independent sovereign with the backing of the US. Afghanistan was a disaster, but the ramifications elsewhere are MUCH more chilling.